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Children’s University pop-up shop proves a winner

Wakefield Children’s University took over a unit at the Ridings Shopping Centre last week and welcomed over 100 visitors. The Children’s University pop-up shop saw pupils take part in a number of interactive activities including darts, golf, healthy food demos and karate.

James Pennington, Partnerships Manager, said: “The pop-up shop was a huge success and another way of raising the profile of the Wakefield CU.

“We were delighted with the support we received from our Learning Destinations which helped us to offer a wide range of activities. It gave our members the chance to try some new things and collect additional stamps to their Passport to Learning. It also gave parents the option of doing something a little bit different during the school holidays!”

Wakefield Children’s University is spearheaded by Wakefield College in conjunction with a number of partner schools and Learning Destinations. The project has over 25 schools on board and over 2,500 signed up.

Children take part in the Children’s University by owning a ‘Passport to Learning’ and collecting stamps for each hour of participation from validated ‘Learning Destinations’. Local Learning Destinations currently include The Hepworth Wakefield, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield Trinity Wildcats and Wakefield Theatre Royal.

Staff at the College are also busy preparing for the first ever Wakefield CU Graduation Ceremony which will take place on Wednesday 26th June at Wakefield Theatre Royal. The event will see the first cohort of pupils ‘graduating’, having accumulated enough learning hours to receive either a bronze, silver or gold certificate.

Amongst the children hoping to be involved in the first Graduation is Luke Whitehead from Wheldon Infants School who took part in many of the activities at the pop-up shop.